83 Percent of Women Over 25 Who Plan to Have Children Are Postponing Starting a Family to Focus on Careers, Finds CareerBuilder Survey
- On average, men expect their highest career salary to be approximately $60,000 more than the expectations of women
- 82 percent of male workers believe they make the same salary as their female counterparts, compared to 66 percent of women who say the same about their male counterparts

CHICAGO and ATLANTA, Feb. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- First comes love, second comes marriage, then comes… delayed family plans? Eighty-three percent of women over the age of 25 who plan to have children are postponing starting a family to focus on their career, compared to 79 percent of men, found a recent CareerBuilder survey. Wanting to earn and save enough money to provide for their family was the top reason given by both women and men who plan to have children (50 percent and 53 percent, respectively), followed by the desire to become more established and get ahead in their career (28 percent and 33 percent, respectively).

One in seven women who plan to have children (15 percent) said they are waiting until at least age 35 to start a family. Sixty-three percent are waiting until at least age 30. Men were twice as likely to postpone having children until at least age 35 at 30 percent. They were equally likely to wait until at least age 30 at 64 percent.

The nationwide survey was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from November 16 to December 6, 2016, among a representative sample of 3,411 U.S. full-time, private sector workers across industries and company sizes and 2,391 full-time hiring and human resources managers across industries and company sizes.

"There is a growing trend among today's workforce both men and women are waiting to have children until they have reached their professional and financial goals," said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. "Despite similar reasons for postponing family plans, men and women differ widely on how much they expect to earn and at what level of position over their careers."

Salary and Title Expectations for Men and Women
When asked to estimate the salary they would ultimately reach in their careers, men were much more likely than women to report they expect to earn $100,000 or more. Forty-four percent of men said they expect to reach a six figure salary compared to 20 percent of women.

On average, the highest salary men said they expect to reach during their careers is around $137,000. Women anticipate reaching around $79,000 on average.

Men are also more likely than women to expect higher job levels during their career, more than doubling women's expectation percentage in company owner and vice president levels. Twenty-two percent of women expect to remain or reach entry-level compared to 10 percent of men.

Job Level Expected to Reached During Career

Men

Women

Company Owner

9%

4%

Senior management (CEO, CFO, CTO, etc.)

6%

4%

Vice President

5%

2%

Director

10%

8%

Manager

29%

27%

Professional/technical role

31%

32%

Entry level/administrative/clerical

10%

22%

 

Genders do not agree about equal pay in the workplace
Today a third of women (34 percent) do not think they earn the same pay as the opposite sex in their organization who have similar experience and qualifications. Men are not as convinced about the wage gap; 82 percent say they earn the same pay.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,391 hiring and human resource managers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, including 2,391 in the private sector) and 3,411 employees ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between November 16 and December 6, 2016. Percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions. With a pure probability sample of 2,391 and 3,411, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have sampling errors of +/- 2.00 and +/- 1.68 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is a global, end-to-end human capital solutions company focused on helping employers find, hire and manage great talent. Combining advertising, software and services, CareerBuilder leads the industry in recruiting solutions, employment screening and human capital management. It also operates top job sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE:TRCO) and McClatchy (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact
Rachel Nauen
773-353-3803
rachel.nauen@careerbuilder.com
http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR

 

SOURCE CareerBuilder